There is a little café near us – Moon – and it’s a great little space – there is not much on the menu – some tea and coffee and beer – but its a great little space to hang out in – and it has internet – really slow internet – but its been our place to get online. Pablo loves it there, as the owners love to give him things, and we tend to meet a lot of the locals and also local expats who have got lost in Chongqing. Last night we had drinks with bao lei – an artist who teaches water colour at the academy, and her partner, Jan from northen germany. He has lived here for about 12 years now – he came over on a swap with his university and found life here better and hasn’t been back. I think a lot of the western artists like the cheap studio space, cheap living easier – and the excitement of Chongqing – the place is chaos. They took us to a restaurant, – helped us order! The dishes are around 7-9 RMB each – just over a $1 Everything seems cheaper in Chongqing. If you wanted to, you could live here really cheaply. We spend about $50 a day for the three of us, but we are buying a few western products for pablo.
Jan gave as a great list of chinese food to order – also the address of oganhaus – essential to be able to get home in a cab. We are settling in – the area is fantastic, people friendly, Organhaus has been great – very welcoming, very helpful.
They are working on getting us a TV and DVD and also internet connected. I think it will take a while – but it will be great to be able to work from home.
